Thursday, February 21, 2013

A Year of Gratitude: Day 106

Today I am grateful for a large, white box delivered to me by our friendly UPS man.  (Who was, by the way, amused that I was so incredibly excited for this delivery.)  My whole adult life I have struggled to find shoes that really fit; I knew that I had relatively wide feet, though not wide enough to buy "wide" shoes, and that finding something that felt comfortable was unbelievably difficult.  I had had my feet "sized" by people over the years, and every time they said, "8.5 or 9".  So that's what I'd look for, inevitably frustrated at the fit ... somehow too narrow yet kind of sloppy at the same time.

Imagine my surprise, then, when two people within a span of a couple months tell me that my feet actually measure at a 7.5 length.  The first guy didn't really elaborate, but he helped me find a pair of shoes that fit well to run in and I was grateful for that.

The second guy, though, was happy to illuminate my situation.  (And given the look on his face, he thought it was rather humorous, too.)  Apparently, I measure at a 7.5 length, but my feet are so wide that finding a shoe that size would be nearly impossible.  Moving up to an 8 or 8.5 broadens the options a bit, but then you add into the equation the fact that my toes "are nearly squared off ... they don't come to a point" (his words, not mine) and that means that I have to buy shoes with a wide toe box.  Kind of like clown shoes (my words, not his).

Armed with new knowledge about my feet - an amazing discovery at 31, I'll tell ya - I hopped onto Zappos.com and began searching in earnest.  I ended up ordering seven pairs of shoes in the hopes that I could find one pair for house shoes and one pair for wearing out and about.  They finally arrived today in that giant, 13.8 pound box, and I am not sure I've ever been so excited to try on shoes before.

Trust me, that excitement wore off after the first pair were uncomfortably tight, but I plowed forth and found at least one pair of for-sure keepers.  They have made great house shoes this afternoon, and I am so glad to finally be out of my exercise sneakers; you can only wear those things for so long before you start to feel like you should be running everywhere, you know?  Some didn't fit at all, but three others are definite options (here, here, and here if you were wondering) and I'm looking forward to narrowing down my options in the next couple days.

Yay for new shoes!  I'm so grateful I can finally say that with such a sense of relief.  And so are my feet.

Have a wonderful night!

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